Starting Big School
19 Aug, 2016
September brings the start of a new school year. Many of our graduates from the Discovery Room will be starting “big school” over the next few weeks. This is a time of mixed emotions for all involved, children, parents, siblings and teachers. For some children it will be an exciting time meeting their new teacher and making friends. For other children it may be anxious time heading into the unfamiliar. In order to help to make this transition as smooth as possible here are a few helpful tips; • Ensure you child is independent with managing their snacks, being able to open and close their…
It is an exciting few weeks in the Discovery Room as our ECCE year draws to a close. We take this time to reflect on the year that has gone by and look to the future with excitement at all the new adventures that lie ahead. For some of the children in the Discovery Room at Crawford Childcare they will be transitioning to “big school” in September. The teachers at Crawford Childcare work with the children to make this transition as smooth and enjoyable as possible. Recently the Discovery Room had a special visitor – Miss Crean, a junior infant teacher from Scoil Chill Ruadhain…
At last we have started to experience some warmer weather which means that sometimes we haven’t even needed our coats? Here at Crawford Childcare we have been encouraging and teaching the children how to put on their own sun cream with the help and supervision of the adults. This has been an exciting new task for the children as they are quite proud of their growing independence. In the adventure room many of the children have also been practicing their roly poly tumbles. Amelie has mastered doing her tumbles, while many of the others still need a little bit of help. With help from Amanda…
There was lots of excitement last week as all the children who attend our Discovery Room went on their school tour. For some it was their first ever bus trip although we also had some more experienced bus riders who explained to us about double and single deckers! We set off in a 53 seater single decker. Before the off the children met in our outdoor play area to run off a bit of the building excitement and to slip on their wellies. We took a quick photo of our super helper mums and we headed out to the bus in a trio of two…
Bubbles are magical and fascinate children and adults alike. We love them at Crawford Childcare. Recently Tara was blowing bubbles and some of the children gathered around. This was the first time that some of the youngest children had experienced bubbles so it was very exciting. Emma, Leon and Ruby were the first to go over to explore in the big cloud of bubbles that Tara had created. Tom and Ethan were more reluctant as they sat nearby watching the other children exploring in the bubbles. As the bubbles floated around the room some of the children began to get very excited and started to…
Last Saturday morning Sarah, Cathy and Karen headed off to Athlone to represent Crawford Childcare in accepting our Healthy Ireland Smart Start Award. This was part of the process which commenced last year where the programme was delivered over 21 hours for 7 weeks. The programme consisted of 6 units ; Health Promotion, Emotional Well Being/Literacy, Physical Activity, Nutrition, Oral Health and Health and Safety for children aged three to five. On Saturday Crawford Childcare were among 190 centres across Ireland to receive this award. Cork was very well represented on the day as it was the County with the most representatives present. We also…
Many of the children attending Crawford Childcare enjoy role playing games and dress-up. Role playing around shopping has become so popular in the Adventure room we have a whole area dedicated to it. Aoife and Eilish love playing in the kitchen. They carefully share out food portions and serve other children the food on plates. Aaron particularly likes Aoife to wait on him and usually beams at her as she delivers his portion. Tess enjoys cooking and she gathered up both food and plates placing them all carefully together in the cooker. Sam was a bit more inventive with his food, placing it in the…
Although St Patrick's Day has now come and gone, for some of the children in the Discovery room, this week the celebrations have just begun. While some discussion and preparations for St Patrick’s Day began before the day, the holiday and excitement feels much more real after the event for the children after being to the parade. There was great excitement the Friday morning after St Patrick’s when the children arrived in Crawford some still dressed in St Patrick’s Day costumes, others with shamrocks and flags painting on their cheeks. We heard stories of dancing leprechauns and marching bands and some of the children were…
Our team of Early Years Educators at Crawford Childcare know and understand that settling your little one can bring stress and worry as you prepare to leave your child for a few hours as you return to work. We work in partnership with families to manage this transition to be as stress free as possible for everyone involved. Our dedicated key worker system is planned according to the hours your child attends and the hours our team members work as well as the compatibility between the child, parent or carer and our team member. Our key worker system within our service encourages stability and continuity…
It was an exciting week at Crawford Childcare. The children arrived to us after Valentine’s weekend sharing stories of how they spent the weekend with their loved ones. Some of the children in the Discovery Room made cards as a special Valentine treat for their mums and dads on Sunday. The weather has been a mixed bag and some days it is as if we have experienced 4 seasons in the one day. Wind, rain, snow, ice and even some much wished for sunshine. We have been talking about the weather and the seasons a lot in the Discovery Room. We talked about what Spring…
